The Black Hole Defense

[Velociryx]

A lot of people in discussion groups have lively and on-going debates about the pros and cons of various factions, and while I have played all seven of them, I must admit my heart is with the Morganites, and I'm usually playing the role of defender of that particular faction....so....what the hell, I'll just give myself over to it completely....I'm a Morganite to the core.... :-)

Anyway, a LOT of people who try Morgan once or twice and get utterly thrashed just give up and write the faction off as useless. It is my hope that this post will help people who are interested in trying on the strengths of the faction as a change of pace from the more gun-loving groups (Hive, Believers, Spartans), and who don't really have any particular empathy with the Peacekeepers or the Gaians. And who knows, maybe this post will lure a few students of the UoP out as well for a change of pace....hey, I can dream anyway.... :-)

A few things to remember about Morgan:

1) You have support and morale problems. It seems like almost all of the social choices you want to make come with penalties relating to support and morale (and you start with a -1 support anyway), so you have to face it....You're not going to have a terribly vicious army until mid to late game....get used to it. Treat your military units like any other expendable commodity and don't worry about the losses. Attrition is your friend. (One point here though....over time, you WILL probably cull out a few veteran + units....hold onto these!!! Until you get Bioenhancement centers up and running, you'll not see many veteran units. Put them on guard in your most vulnerable/valuable bases and give them tech upgrades as soon as you get them!)

Having said that, there are several things you can do to help your green army gain a measure of respectability. These include:

Visit Monoliths: If you've got any in your territory, send your newly created troops on their rounds. Don't assign anybody to guard duty until they've first paid homage to the Monoliths. That should help, and the more you have in your territory, the better!

Send your troops out "Trophy Hunting:" Just as the Gaians troll the Fungus for soldiers, so too, should you be trolling (for troop upgrades and money!). Right AFTER you visit your monoliths, and while your troops are on their way back to the cities they will eventually be guarding, spend a few turns actively trying to pick a fight with the worms (this assumes, of course, that no other faction is currently trying to pick a fight with YOU). Make a quick kill and head home.

Finally, you should always Prototype!: You've got the money, and the first unit out the gate using a particular technology gets a morale bonus....a good perk for you!

2) The Myth of the Hab-Limit: Okay, until you build hab-complexes, you're going to have small cities....learn to deal with it, 'cause there's nothing you can do about it. Most people think this is a crushing disability, but that is simply untrue. What it DOES do, is force you to focus on expansion. Little bases grow faster than big bases. I'd much rather have six bases at size two than a single size 12 base. At any rate, since your bases WILL stop growing at size class four, you'll have to expand to keep your population growing. No biggie....by the time you can build hab complexes, you'll be able to rush production on the ones that really need it, and it won't ever be an issue (The Hab limit was only an issue for me on the very first game I ever played with this faction. Once you know it's out there, you can plan accordingly, and it's really not that hard to deal with).

3) You have only one real advantage. Fortunately, your advantage is HUGE. $$$Money$$$ The Morgan faction can make more cash, more quickly and with fewer adverse effects than any other faction in the game.

4) Cash = Flexibility. And flexibility is your friend. If you're at peace and no one is threatening, you can use your funds to hasten builds at your bases. If you need to defend yourself, start hoarding your cash to pay for troop subversions and pull your green troops out to get in the way. Some of them will survive, and they will be stronger for it!

5) Infrastructure is your friend. Especially structures which give you economy or research bonuses (both being energy-driven). Energy is something you will never want for, and these base structures will pay you handsome dividends....again, because of your abundant amounts of energy, it will be a rare case indeed that some other faction can glean a larger benefit from these structures than you.

6) Give Peace a Chance: You want allies, and the more the merrier! Personally, I tend to shy away from Pacts, because they are too restrictive....I'd rather have three or four treaties than a single Pact, double trade benefits or not.

7) Diplomacy & Gun-Running:
You have to walk a tight rope in order to stay in everyone's good graces, but if you learn to do it well, you will be richly rewarded for your efforts. Peace-Mongering is a viable tool for you (asking your various allies to call off their vendettas against some of your other allies, so they don't try to draw you into the conflict). As is making loans to warring factions. You can make a LOT of money on the interest payments!

Make no mistake about it though, eventually, someone will attack you, and when they do, your response should be:

8) The Black Hole Defense. The crux of this defense is to maintain the integrity of your borders AT ALL COSTS. If anyone not allied to you enters your territory, get rid of them, either by subversion or blowing them off the map. Any non-allied aircraft wander into your airspace, same story. Naval vessels. Gone. This might spark a war, but if you are tenacious about it, the computer will eventually figure out that all you want is to be left alone in your space, and they'll accept a bribe to leave you be (besides, they'll get REALLY tired of seeing their Chaos Marines and such subverted, allowing you to pick and choose certain of your older units to be disbanded to further widen the infrastructure gap you have with everyone else!) Essentially, it's the epitome of the "Walk softly, but carry a big stick" philosophy, and the warlike factions most likely to put "observation forces" in your territory will (eventually) respect you for it.

Eventually though, you will be ready to go to war....but, as is true with almost every other aspect of the game, the Morganites seem to have more options to choose from when deciding exactly HOW they intend to fight.

For the Spartans, the choice is pretty simple. Build lots of Rovers (or what-have-you), and overrun your enemy. You can do that if you like, but there are several more interesting and entertaining possibilities.....

War Stratagies with the Morganites:

As mentioned above, there are a variety of approaches possible, ranging from standard to completely covert, but I prefer a hybrid, conquest/expansion approach, at least when dealing with computer opponents. Here's the gist of it:

During peace time, expand your territory in the direction of a faction you suspect will be giving you trouble down the line. Never allow your army to actually leave your borders, but keep the bulk of your attack force "pushing the envelope" of your borders....drawing ever closer to your enemy.

Make your conquest one of "quiet envelopment." Make use of sea colonies to surround the faction you want to eliminate or weaken (even better if you can isolate a few of his own sea-bases in this manner). One of the key things to remember if you are going to run a market econ. during war time is that no drones will be created so long as your forces remain in your borders....therefore, the solution is simple: Make your opponents borders and your borders the same thing.

Generally speaking, Morgan does not take the offensive until mid to late game, and at that point you've got HORDES of options open to you. Some of my more favored tactics are:

Classic Expansion/Envelopment: Surround his cities, then smash them in a single turn so that drones are not even an issue.

Expansion/Envelopment with a twist of Lime (Probes): See above, but subvert the cities, instead of relying on force. The advantage is, you get to keep all the troops those cities are supporting! :-)

Missile Bombard/Orbital Insertion: Blow away the defenders from a distance, then insert your troops and claim the vacant real estate. No drone problems at all! :-)

Fun with Psi-Gates: I REALLY enjoy doing this, but be warned, it takes a LOT of money....the advantage of course, is that you know in advance that you will be wanting to do this, and will save accordingly.

Send a series of probe teams to penetrate as deeply into enemy territory as they can (or, even better, Orbitally Insert them into the very heart of your enemy's territory), and subvert the biggest city you can afford to. Then, rush production on a Psi-Gate and teleport the bulk of your army into his homeland. That's generally checkmate. You don't have a drone problem, 'cause you're troops are still "in your territory" and your enemy is now facing you on an entirely unexpected front. (and you've generally got clean lines to his other bases...thanks to his own network of roads and mag-tubes!) If you do this to a particularly aggressive faction (Hive/Spartan), you'll find almost no base defenses....most of their army stays in the field, and before they can get their troops back home, you have already overrun the bulk of their empire.

Summary: The Morganites are a sturdy, capable faction that can provide a very different style of game play for you. The amount of money they can crank out borders on the obscene, and, if properly directed, they can easily out-tech even the vaunted UoP, and do it with less of a drone problem to boot.

But enough of my ramblings....I guess I DO have to do at least a little work today... ;-)
-=Vel=-

[David Floyd]

On the other hand, if you are a good UoP player (as I like to think I am), you can use tactics to get massive money advantages to out-strip the Morganites (one game I have going I'm pumping out 1500+ credits a turn from about 12 cities in a Police State). But I think that the only two "real" races, I mean the races with a good shot at winning a long game, are the UoP and the Morganites, and possibly the Hive if they expand enough.

[Velociryx]

I agree with you David....for the long-term, my money is almost always on one of those three....the University for their fine research capabilities (esp. when controlled by a human player....they're not so easy for Morgan to outpace with a living, breathing human behind the wheel), Moneybags himself, and, much as I dislike the faction, unless someone chokes them off in the early game, The Hive is almost always a VERY strong contender in the late game. Two or three hundred years of growth bonuses can be awfully hard to combat....
-=Vel=-

[Theben]

Dave...Velo...don't discount any faction. Depending on the player & the level of play, any faction is good. While I admit to having difficulty at trancend level, any level below that I have won playing the Gaians, UN, or Spartans. You just have to figure out what works best for your faction & do it.

[Velociryx]

Well spoken, Theben, and believe me, I'm not one to discount anybody. Vel doesn't like surprises.... :-) But, there are certain trends in games I've played (this is speaking "vs. computer opponents" here). Generally speaking, the Gaians start strong, and fade the longer the game grinds on. Same with the Believers. The University is either at one extreme or the other. They usually get knocked off really early, or they're near the top of the charts. I've not yet played a game where they hung around the middle....
Lal's PeaceKeepers, on the other hand, are extremely durable. They usually start well, but then hang back a bit in the mid-game (I am guessing their inefficiency starts to drag at them). Lal is usually doing well enough to be a contender for governer by the time the first election is held, and drops toward the middle of the pack after that.

Some of the WORST games I've ever played were games when The Hive and the UoP started close together. In one game in particular, Yang started in the Monsoon Jungle and shot off the chart right away....I guess he forced a submission out of the UoP, 'cause they were a tight-knit team the whole game (with the UoP being the Waaaayyyy Junior Partner). I was expanding like crazy, pulling every trick I could think of to make up the difference, but it wasn't enough. He smashed through me like I wasn't even there. :-( Morgan lost that one....lost it bad....
Oh well, the next game I choked him off at three cities... ;-)
-=Vel=-

[Googlie]

Bumping....

[Velociryx]

WOW....LOL....did I write all that?
-=Vel=-

[Googlie]

Yup

'Twas a slow day at work and as my internet access is 100 times faster from our Lan server than at home I browsed through the old threads here and at Firaxis' site.

Often new players ask questions that have been covered already, but from home it takes forever to set the search for one year and wait for the twenty or so pages to load. At work it was a snap, so I "elevated" a lot of old classics.

Googlie


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Putting a spin on it...